Compound words - two possible choices?

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bravado
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Joined: Thu Jun 07, 2012 11:28 am

Compound words - two possible choices?

Post by bravado »

Hello Everyone :D
I was wondering if DC's had ever done papers where there's two possible choices of compound word?
Perhaps the one below, that DD2 has spotted, can't be counted as a compound word as it doesn't conform to rules? I'd be ever so pleased to hear what people think :D

IPS 30 Minute Practice Tests - Paper 8 Q8

(go in come) (lives dies exist)

The answer is "come - dies" but she chose "in - dies"

I think she's come across some others but as usual, when I've gone to look through her past papers, I can't find them :roll:

She has her list of compound words but for some reason, chose "in - dies" lol!
daveg
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Re: Compound words - two possible choices?

Post by daveg »

bravado wrote: The answer is "come - dies" but she chose "in - dies"
It's a bad question. "Indies" is a perfectly good word: not only as a contraction of "independents" but as a proper noun, as in "West Indies" or "Dutch East Indies". It's possible the rubric of the question excludes proper nouns, of course.
bravado
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Re: Compound words - two possible choices?

Post by bravado »

daveg
thanks for the reply - I also wondered if proper nouns may be excluded as choices. We've been doing some history at home about the "Indies" - I think that must have made an impression on her brain lol!

At first, I thought that plurals may be excluded...then I remembered that other answers included plurals :?
ginx
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Location: Warwickshire

Re: Compound words - two possible choices?

Post by ginx »

bravado,

I didn't get that! Good thing it's not me doing it!
Len Scap
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Joined: Sat Sep 08, 2012 11:41 am

Re: Compound words - two possible choices?

Post by Len Scap »

It can't be 'Indies' as a proper noun as it has no capital letter.

'Indies' as in the plaural of the informal word formed by contracting 'independent' is in the dictionary, though.

I suppose this is where exam technique comes in: if more than one answer is possinle, the kid has to determine which one is most likely to result in getting the marks!
bravado
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Joined: Thu Jun 07, 2012 11:28 am

Re: Compound words - two possible choices?

Post by bravado »

Len Scap wrote:It can't be 'Indies' as a proper noun as it has no capital letter.

'Indies' as in the plaural of the informal word formed by contracting 'independent' is in the dictionary, though.

I suppose this is where exam technique comes in: if more than one answer is possinle, the kid has to determine which one is most likely to result in getting the marks!
I'm intrigued - how do they determine it?
Sally-Anne
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Re: Compound words - two possible choices?

Post by Sally-Anne »

To the best of my knowledge there has only ever been one case of an ambiguous or incorrect question on a real paper in the last 6 years.

I really wouldn't worry about the possibility of it occurring.
bravado
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Re: Compound words - two possible choices?

Post by bravado »

Sally-Anne wrote:To the best of my knowledge there has only ever been one case of an ambiguous or incorrect question on a real paper in the last 6 years.

I really wouldn't worry about the possibility of it occurring.
Thanks Sally-Anne

I'm not really worried - merely curious as to the way a child can select ie it can't be x because......
I know that for some questions, you have to select 2 words similar, same, different etc like Type B but maybe one can't be an option because it's the wrong type ie verb.noun, adjective

Do you think that one fell into the "ambiguous" category?

Anyway, I've made DD run round the garden 6 times and blindfolded, in her bare feet at the stroke of midnight as a punishment for not seeing come-dies straightaway :lol: :wink: :lol: :D She won't make THAT mistake again :lol: :evil: :twisted:
Sally-Anne
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Location: Buckinghamshire

Re: Compound words - two possible choices?

Post by Sally-Anne »

bravado wrote:Do you think that one fell into the "ambiguous" category?
Not really, for the reasons given above - "indies" as an abbreviation for "independents" would be slang in the old-fashioned world of 11+ vocab, and it is not capitalised, so Indies is also out.

It is just an attempt to be too clever (or very stupid) by the author. Unfortunately there are too many examples of that sort of thing abroad.
Anyway, I've made DD run round the garden 6 times and blindfolded, in her bare feet at the stroke of midnight as a punishment for not seeing come-dies straightaway :lol: :wink: :lol: :D She won't make THAT mistake again :lol: :evil: :twisted:
You were supposed to make her do it in the snow for the Japanese parenting bit to work. :wink:
bravado
Posts: 468
Joined: Thu Jun 07, 2012 11:28 am

Re: Compound words - two possible choices?

Post by bravado »

Sally-Anne wrote:
bravado wrote:Do you think that one fell into the "ambiguous" category?
Not really, for the reasons given above - "indies" as an abbreviation for "independents" would be slang in the old-fashioned world of 11+ vocab, and it is not capitalised, so Indies is also out.

It is just an attempt to be too clever (or very stupid) by the author. Unfortunately there are too many examples of that sort of thing abroad.
Anyway, I've made DD run round the garden 6 times and blindfolded, in her bare feet at the stroke of midnight as a punishment for not seeing come-dies straightaway :lol: :wink: :lol: :D She won't make THAT mistake again :lol: :evil: :twisted:
You were supposed to make her do it in the snow for the Japanese parenting bit to work. :wink:
Thanks again Sally-Anne
I didn't feel an abbreviation would be an option and felt sure it would be discounted on that criteria but wondered if a proper noun could be an option for the reason why it had to be discounted?
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